Mandatory meeting on day off, unpaid

[paula2jen]

What is the name of your state? Texas
My company scheduled a "mandatory" training seminar on a Friday because we are off on that day. We work 10 hours a day for 4 days (Mon thru Thur) and are salaried, exempt employees. We were told that we even had to dress in a certain attire. It was a five hour seminar and was located at another branch office that is a 45 minute drive from our location. The biggest problem with all this is we were told that even though the meeting was mandatory, we would not be paid. When some of us voiced our displeasure and questioned the legality of that, we were then told that the meeting was not "mandatory or required, but highly suggested". We were told that if we could not attend, we must have a really good reason. I was scheduled to teach a CPR course on that day for an organization that I volunteer with, so I was excused, but most of my co-workers went. Was this illegal, unethical, or just poor business practices?

 

[cbg]

None of the above.

If you are correctly classified as salaried, exempt employees there are no circumstances whatsoever in which you are legally entitled to be paid anything over and above your regular weekly salary, and you have to be prepared to work extra hours. Salaried exempt employees are not paid on the basis of a 40 hour work week - they are paid on the basis of fulfilling the job duties that have been assigned them. This most certainly can include a one-time, five hour seminar in what would normally be off hours. If you're working 4 10 hour days, just when were they supposed to schedule it? If they'd scheduled it after hours on a Mon-Thursday, you wouldn't have liked that either, and they had no obligation to take five hours out of the work week to do training.

Your employer did nothing illegal, and in my opinion nothing either unethical or of poor management. I understand that it was annoying to have to come in for training on a day you aren't usually scheduled, but being exempt has more responsibilitites than just a 40 hour week.